There have been claims of a a ‘silent majority’ who want Britain to stay in the EU, but are at risk of being shouted down by the more vocal Eurosceptics.

Tory heavyweight Lord Heseltine has warned the prime minister against rushing into an EU referendum. Lord Heseltine described it as an ‘unnecessary gamble’.

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Extracts from Mr Cameron’s Netherlands speech showed he intended to make clear that he wanted the UK to play a ‘committed and active’ part in the EU in future.

But he was also planning to warn that Europe will fail and British people ‘will drift towards the exit’ if changes are not made to address the three key challenges of eurozone crisis, economic competitiveness and dramatically declining public support.

Meanwhile on the Andrew Marr Show, Ukip leader Nigel Farage said he could not ‘even contemplate’ a coalition between his party and the Tories while Mr Cameron is prime minister.

‘I think with David Cameron as leader that is virtually impossible to even contemplate,’ he said.

‘It’s very interesting, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, they don’t agree with what Ukip stands for but they recognise that we have a sensible point of view that is held by a large number of people in this country.

‘Mr Cameron, whenever he’s asked about Ukip, just throws abuse at us and calls us nutters and closet racists, so I don’t think there’s any prospect of us doing a deal with the Conservative Party with Mr Cameron in charge.’